Jul 1st, 2014

Author: donich_admin

Well we are back and it is certainly nice to be here. The cats have missed us and Tora in particular won’t let me out of his sight for more than five minutes in case I go away again.

It was interesting to see a few differences between here and Cambridge (apart from the obvious ones like the lack of mountains). Firstly, they are definitely a few weeks ahead of us climate-wise. For example the Buddleia is in full blossom there and is just opening here. They can also grow some things outside we wouldn’t stand much of a chance of (see the picture of the apricot tree). Sadly another thing I noticed down there was the almost complete absence of bees and butterflies. Whilst our garden is constantly abuzz with its insect population – the gardens down there are eerily silent. I’d like to hope that this is just because it is in a town – but from all I have heard it is a general problem in England.

Back here it is now high summer – I’ve never seen anything so green as our garden and the woods beyond. The tomato plants in the polytunnel are groaning under the weight of the green tomatoes and we have a few outlying ones that have already ripened. I also picked the first courgettes and beans today – although they haven’t done as well as I had hoped, probably because I had hoped to put them outside and as the slugs changed that plan the pots they are in are too small.

R and I walked down to the loch this afternoon and I had a paddle. While I was doing this, we heard the sound of a piper striking up with ‘Over the sea to Skye’ from the other side of the loch where there is a wedding venue. It was an extraordinarily poetic and romantic moment. And then we had ice creams on the way home – perfect.